Holiday Crafts

Alex's mom came into our room today to make paper chains with us! We had a great afternoon making snowflakes,  coloring projects and creating beautiful chains!

Measuring With Popsicle Sticks

We are learning about standard units of measure by first using non standard units to measure objects in our classroom.

Peer Conferencing in Action!

Kids are learning how to listen to a partner's story and discuss what they notice about their writing.
We call this a peer conference. First graders choose a story to read to a partner. Their partner listens and then comments on something they noticed about the writing, such as this little boy's comment about his partner using periods in his writing! Then they check to be sure their partner has included Who, Where and When parts to their story using a peer conference checklist. If one of these elements is missing, it gets circled on the checklist for his partner to possibly include later in his story. These two boys did a great job!

Snow

We  play  in  the snow   a lot.  We  make  snowmen   and  snow angels.
We   have  a  snowball fight.
We  can build  a  fort.


by Brooke and Arwen

Having Fun in the Snow

When me and my friends play in the snow and have fun it's a dream because
you have someone with you.  It's fun.

by Anochie

I can't wait until I play in the snow.
 By Ethan

I love to play in  the snow!
 by Bertie

We like snow at school but we couldn't go outside on Monday.
  by Ryan


Outside  I  play in the snow with my friends  and I go over to their house.
 by Marcus.

Writers in Action

First graders do a great deal of writing. We begin the year writing personal narratives which we call "small moment" stories. Small moment stories are stories that capture one part of a child's experience that they wish to tell. We learn how to zoom in to an idea to make it a small moment story. A child might start with the idea that they want to write about playing in the snow. Then we zoom in to discover the child wants to write about playing in the snow with his sister. Then we zoom in even further to find out the child wants to write about playing in the snow with his sister building a snowman. This is a small moment story. It only describes building a snowman, not the child's entire experience outside in the snow. Kids have written many small moment stories since the beginning of the year!

Fun Math Workplaces!

While kids play math games each day they are practicing many skills. Race You to 25 Cents helps kids count money and also learn the value of coins. Ten or Bust lets kids practice adding to 10 and trying not to go over 10. Add and Compare has kids adding up the total on their cards and seeing who has more or less. Sea Creatures Sorting and Graphing lets kids design their own graphs. They have lots of fun while they practice great math skills!

Our New Pets!

We got gerbils for classroom pets! Mrs. Hanna, a friend of ours who breeds gerbils brought two little male gerbils to us right before vacation. We had a vote and named them Gumby and Brownie. They are very cute and fun to watch!